Editing Roberta Flack (section)

== Criticism ==
In 1971, ''[[The Village Voice]]'' critic [[Robert Christgau]] reported that "Flack is generally regarded as the most significant new black woman singer since [[Aretha Franklin]], and at moments she sounds kind, intelligent, and very likable. But she often exhibits the gratuitous gentility you'd expect of someone who says 'between you and I'." Reviewing her body of work from the 1970s, he argued later that the singer "has nothing whatsoever to do with [[rock and roll]] or rhythm and blues and almost nothing to do with soul", comparing her [[Middle of the road (music)|middle-of-the-road]] aesthetic to [[Barry Manilow]] but with better taste, which he believed does not necessarily guarantee more enduring music: "In the long run, pop lies are improved by vulgarity."<ref name="Weisbard">{{cite book|page=[https://archive.org/details/listenagainmomen00weis/page/183 183]|editor-last=Weisbard|editor-first=Eric|year=2007|title=Listen Again: A Momentary History of Pop Music|url=https://archive.org/details/listenagainmomen00weis|url-access=registration|publisher=[[Duke University Press]]|isbn=978-0822340416}}</ref>

Writer and music critic [[Ann Powers]] argued in a 2020 piece for [[NPR]] that "Flack's presence looms over both R&B and indie "bedroom" pop as if she were one of the astral beings in [[Ava DuVernay]]'s version of ''[[A Wrinkle In Time]].''"<ref name=":0" /> Jason King argued that she occupied a complex place in popular music, as "the nature of her power as a performer—to generate rapturous, spellbinding mood music and to plumb the depths of soulful heaviness by way of classically-informed technique—is not too easy to claim or make sense with the limited tools that we have in music criticism."<ref name=":0" />

Flack's minimalist, classically trained approach to her songs was seen by a number of critics as lacking in grit and uncharacteristic of soul music. According to music scholar Jason King, her work was regularly described with the adjectives "boring", "depressing", "lifeless", "studied", and "calculated",<ref name="Weisbard"/> although in contrast, [[AllMusic]]'s Steve Huey said it had been described as "classy, urbane, reserved, smooth, and sophisticated".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/roberta-flack-mn0000290072/biography|title=Roberta Flack|date=n.d.|last=Huey|first=Steve|website=[[AllMusic]]|access-date=March 18, 2017|archive-date=April 19, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170419064759/http://www.allmusic.com/artist/roberta-flack-mn0000290072/biography|url-status=live}}</ref>

An obituary in February 2025 stated: "She sang with flawless diction and an elegant, understated power" in a voice that was "soft and sensual, creating a radio-friendly crossover between jazz, R&B and easy listening," and her classical training meant that she could accompany herself in any style on the piano.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/roberta-flack-obituary-singer-who-fused-soul-jazz-and-folk-q6gsbmfmt |website=thetimes.com |title=The Times Register: Obituary Roberta Flack |date=25 February 2025 |access-date=28 February 2025}}</ref>